Baianinho de Mauá and Felipinho participated in the Super Desafio da Sinuquinha, which awarded the biggest prize in the history of pool in Brazil. After four hours of play, Baianinho beat his opponent and got the prize of R$ 400 thousand.
The event was held by the Brazilian League of Sinuquinha, broadcast live by the Mundo da Sinuca YouTube channel, which has 1.4 million subscribers. Snooker differs from snooker in some aspects, such as the weight and size of the balls, the number of pockets and the texture of the table. The modality is quite popular and moves a lot of money in the bookmaker market.
The duel against Felipinho was highly anticipated. At 49 years old, Baianinho has experience on his side, but his opponent, at 26, is the current champion of LBS (Liga Brasileira da Sinuquinha). “You can make a living from pool, but in the past it was very difficult, because we had to take it out of our pocket to participate in the championship”, said the champion before the game.
Baianinho de Mauá is the most relevant name for snooker in Brazil
Baianinho de Mauá is the most relevant name for snooker in Brazil today. Josué Ramalho da Silva was born in Paulo Afonso, Bahia, and since childhood he practiced the sport. He studied until the fourth grade and from there he started to play for bets.
At age 19, he moved to Ribeiro Preto (SP) to work as a bricklayer’s helper. Despite this, he never stopped betting on snooker. Until the moment he earned two months of salary in a two-hour match. Later, he left for Mauá, in Greater São Paulo, becoming increasingly famous.
Josué also became known as Witch of Mauá or Witch of Pool, for the sensational plays. By the end of the 1990s, he was already nationally famous. The ‘Baianinho’ even gained fame on the internet because of the videos of his plays, which accumulated eight million views.
According to Exame, he is usually called for public presentations that cost around R$10,000. In addition, he has already made appearances on TV shows and participated in the Sinuquinha vs Snooker challenge last year against snooker champions from Great Britain.
Olympic sport
Snooker fans dream of taking the activity to the Olympics, something that happened with popular modalities such as skateboarding, surfing, climbing and break dancing. The first measure, according to the players, will be to create a federation.
